Un groupe dionysiaque de Géorgie. Terres cuites hellénistiques de Sarkiné

The group of terra-cotta sculptures discovered in Sarkine, the Eastern part of Georgia, is of significant value in correlation with a great number of art monuments of Georgia of Hellenistic and Roman period. The plastic group includes the bust represantations of Dionysus (iconographie type of Dionysus-taureau) and Ariadne and the four masks of the maenades and one other personage of the thiasos. The representations of Ariadne and Dionysus have some affinities with classicized sculptures of the Hellenistic age. The closest iconographie and stylistic analogies of the Georgian sculptures are found among the masterpieces of plastic art of the III-II centuries from Thasos, Delos, Alexandria etc., as well as in Western Georgia, in Vani terra-cotta fragments, dated by the II-I centuries B.C. The comparative study of the terra-cotta representations of Sarkine insures us to date them by the II century B.C. Their spectrographic and structural analysis indicates that it's a local made production, created in accordance with Greek samples. Along with the numerous archaeological monuments of Georgia the skilful representations of Dionysus and his followers aimed to decorate the interior of the building can be considered as one more interesting proof of close contacts of Georgia with Hellenistic world

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Geography · Georgian · Iconography · Sculpture · Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · History · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology · Philosophy